merrion street

• Today’s Exchequer Returns show that for the first quarter of 2017 the Exchequer recorded a deficit of €903 million which is a year on year improvement of €266 million when compared to the same period in 2016.
• Taxes received in the first quarter of 2017 were behind the profile for the January/February/March period (-€282 million or -2.4%). However, on a more positive note, receipts are up on the same period of last year (+356 million or +3.2%) and this is symptomatic of our growing economy.
• Gross voted expenditure on public services and infrastructure is down 0.9% on profile but up 5.5% year-on-year. 

Speaking about the Exchequer figures today Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan T.D. stated:
“The Government continues to deliver on the commitments made in the programme for a Partnership Government. In order to do that we need to see a steady flow of revenues into the Exchequer. Receipts are up on the same period in 2016 and today’s figures from the CSO, which show the unemployment rate for March 2017 is down to 6.4%, help to explain this increase.
However, receipts are slightly behind expectations for the year to date. The Department of Finance will monitor that and the Government will ensure that taxes can be set at an appropriate level and vital public services can be paid for. In fact, the draft Stability Programme Update is to be published next week and this will revise the economic and fiscal forecasts.”
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Mr. Paschal Donohoe T.D. said:
“It is encouraging that spending is being managed by Departments within their allocations, with overall expenditure on delivering public services below profile. Capital investment on infrastructure is slightly ahead of profile and well up on last year reflecting increased expenditure on the housing programme.”